New Delhi: With focus shifting to ramp entertainment and making fashion attractive, performers in the industry find themselves overbooked to meet demands of designers making sure the message behind the collection is conveyed to a wide range of visitors.
Croatian dancer and choreographer Nikolina Nikoleski, who came to India seven years ago, performed at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week here this season and earned high praise for her sleek moves on the ramp that riveted the audience over a course of five days.
Nikoleski performed this year for designer Urvashi Kaur's show. From ballet to contemporary to Bharatnatyam, Nikoleski has been associated with many different dance forms. In her early years, she went through many trainings and techniques that included yoga, pilates and ballet.
In an interview to IBNLive.com she spoke of exploring the complex human psyche using various contemporary dance techniques. With more than 20 years of dancing experience behind her, the svelte lady said she loved her art.
Q: How did you make the shift to the ramp?
A: "I am a professional ballet, contemporary dancer and a Bharatnatyam dancer and sometimes according to the needs of the organizer or a client, I do fashion shows or a special show or event. I do it as there is no particular art form in dance."
Q How is runway dancing received by audiences?
A: (Smiles) "Well it’s a nice feeling. It’s not like what I would normally perform there in theaters and festivals and cultural events or for the audiences who have the intention to watch either a dance or listen to the music, or just watch a runway show.
But in a fashion show, there is an extra element of surprise as there is a lot of adrenalin, it becomes a great success because like I said people just expect a casual catwalk and then there is this element, you know artistic element it brings to the dynamics of the whole show. It is very professional as well for me because it adds this dimension of communication with the audience while mixing with designs."
Q: How has your India experience been so far?
A: I find India an amazing country. It is very dynamic and very rich in culture. It takes more than one life to discover it and then to live up to all - so many joys in itself and it’s just very dynamic.
I find it a very glamorous world. I have never seen such mixture of cultures in one country, this in itself is very inspiring especially for the artist, and be it a dancer, or a painter or an actor. You can find so much material in daily life which can give deep meaning to your art and to get inspired by. So it’s like a treasure box from which you can keep pulling out a diamond and a pearl and more and more, so there is a hole in the box, you know."
Q:Who is your inspiration?
A: I take my inspiration from many who were there in my past. It won't be fair to so many others if I took one name.
Q How has yoga helped you gain strength in your art form?
A: Through yoga I got in touch with the Indian culture, mythology, stories, way of living and for me Bharatnatyam represents the perfect union of yoga, dance, music, Indian culture and simplicity in way of life.
I also found it very suiting to my personality because Bharatnatyam is just pure energy - very rhythmical, it’s very expressive, very captivating and there is this connection with divinity and also it communicates itself 100 per cent and also communicates with the audiences so strongly so its like an exchange of energy from both sides.
Q: Your favourite Indian city?
A: Currently she is a dance professor at the French embassy school in the city. I have travelled vastly in India but I find Delhi great because you can find that even though a metropolis, still you can easily commute to other places. And it is also very central so as an artist it is good for business, meeting people, etc. It's also like a big melting pot of India and western influences like Europe. You can see a lot of European influences in like music at parties and all.
Q And what about Bollywood, does that interest you?
A: I know Bollywood is very popular but they should try to preserve India’s dying art forms and engage in a modern approach. Young people think certain things are old fashioned, they should find a modern way on how to interact and how to preserve culture.
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